Hosea Carter, 32, a carpenter, was killed by a group of men in 1948 in Marion County, Mississippi. The men had hunted him down and shot him to death in a gulley. Accounts of the incident vary. Some reports were to the effect that Carter was killed because he was accused of making advances towards the wife of Ray Renfro, a white man. Other reports were that he was at the woman’s house because he had a job there, and was seen having a sandwich with her, which caused him to be suspected of being in relationship with her. A white man named Ratliff Prisk was arrested and charged with Carter’s murder but was released and never served time for the killing. Several weeks after Hosea Carter was killed, his brother, William Carter, who had protested Hosea’s slaying, was found burned to death in the wreckage of his truck. An essay on this case, researched and authored by a CRRJ student, is available on request.

Hosea Carter

Tom McKenzie

William Ratliff Prisk